Passenger rail is a nice way to get around. Ballot Measure 7A would expand rail service along the I-25 corridor in Colorado.

At its simplest, Measure 7A would implement a new 0.333% sales and use tax for residents within Front Range Passenger Rail District (FRPRD) municipalities and districts that will be listed below. The revenue would pay for expanding Front Range Rail service from its current plans to go from Ft. Collins to Denver, to from Ft. Collins to Pueblo, about 190 miles total. Passing 7A would also expand planned frequency between Ft. Collins and Denver from 3 round trips daily to 4 round trips, while FRPRD has longer-term goals, possibly decades out, of expanding to up to 10 trips daily.

Measure 7A is expected to generate about $295 million per year. Per the official TABOR notice for 7A, FRPRD debt would also be increased by $580 million, with a maximum repayment amount of $785 million. There is no sunset date for this tax to expire.

This ballot measure would pass with a simple majority (at least 50% plus one) of FRPRD voters. If certain readers don’t live in this district, they won’t see 7A on their ballots.

Local Rail Mini-History: 2004 – Present

The world didn’t begin in 2004, but that’s the year when RTD ran its FasTracks ballot measure. Primarily intended for Boulder County readers, FasTracks was expected to provide commuter rail (Northwest Rail) along existing Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) tracks from Longmont to Denver. We still don’t have it in 2026.

For the world’s shortest version of financial reasons why it hasn’t arrived – RTD relies largely on sales taxes and there was a “Great Recession” from about 2008-2010; BNSF wanted more than $500 million for FasTracks to use its rail lines; and COVID (‘nuff said). Much of the whole metro area FasTracks system has been built out, but RTD authorities have long said it hasn’t been feasible to build and operate Northwest Rail except for a short “B Line” section from Denver to Westminster.

In 2021, the Colorado General Assembly authorized the Front Range Passenger Rail District (FRPRD), with goals of having intercity service along much of the I-25 corridor in Colorado, plus through Boulder. The legislature also passed two bills in 2024 that have provided funding to FRPRD – SB 24-184 and SB 24-230.

A partnership called “Joint Service” formed – a collaboration between RTD, CDOT, Colorado Transportation Investment Office, and FRPRD. Between $190 million from a FasTracks savings account and other revenue including from the 2024 state bills, it was announced that Joint Service would be able to start service, three round trips daily, between Ft. Collins and Denver by 2029. According to FRPRD, this service would begin with no new taxes, no matter what happens with 7A.

There are a lot of Boulder County locals who still ask “Why didn’t I get a train with my FasTracks money?” One answer is that some of it went into the FasTracks savings account and will help pay for Joint Service rail.

Who’s In the District and Where Will the Stops Be?

Per the official TABOR notice for 7A, the district includes the following municipalities: Arvada, Boulder, Bow Mar, Broomfield, Centennial, Cherry Hills Village, Colorado Springs, Columbine Valley, Denver, Edgewater, Englewood, Federal Heights, Fort Collins, Glendale, Greenwood Village, Lafayette, Lakeside, Lakewood, Littleton, Longmont, Louisville, Loveland, Manitou Springs, Mountain View, Pueblo, Sheridan, Starkville, Superior, Trinidad, Westminster, and Wheat Ridge; as well as the Sterling Ranch Colorado Metropolitan District Nos. 1-7.

The easiest way to understand where the stops will be is the image at right. In Boulder, the station would be near 30th and Pearl, in the area once known as the “Transit Village” but is now called “Boulder Junction.”

The Colorado Connector website has a page where interested readers can see more precisely where the other stations will be located: https://coloradoconnector.com/stations/#localgrowth

Will There Be Ridership?

According to an 80-page document called the Delivery Plan for Colorado Connector, officials expect “more than a million one-way trips” yearly, or about 3,500 trips per day. See the chart at right for an anticipated ridership breakdown. (NOTE: readers will be able to learn a lot about the project proposals fairly quickly by reading or skimming this document.)

Information from the Delivery Plan includes results from ridership surveys on how and where people would plan to ride. One survey said more than half of respondents said they’d use it for things like special events, recreation, or sporting events. Incidentally, six Denver-area professional sports teams recently endorsed 7A, per the Denver Post. But slightly more than 20% of survey respondents also said they’d ride the rail for non-recreational uses like work, appointments, or school.

Longer-Term Phasing

According to the Delivery Plan document, the expansion from Denver to Pueblo would be operating in about five years if 7A passes. The document uses the name “Full Service” to describe a Phase 2 (the northern Joint Service plan is considered Phase 1). The Full Service implementation would require about $1.7 billion in capital costs, along with yearly operating expenses.

But there are Phases 3 to 5 envisioned in the Delivery Plan document. These phases are intended to include frequency expansion up to 10 round trips daily. The document mentions possible expansion northward into Wyoming, and southward from Pueblo to Trinidad or even into New Mexico. The later phases might require $2.7 billion in capital costs and yearly operating expenses.

A Few Random Extra Points About Plans Under 7A

  • Anticipated travel time between destinations.

    Amtrak will initially operate the trains.

  • Colorado Connector might get some federal funding. Per the Delivery Plan, it has “advanced to the second step of the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) Corridor Identification and Development Program, placing it among the more advanced projects in the national pipeline and opening the door to potential future federal funding.”
  • Again from the Delivery Plan, “fares are meant to be affordable and familiar, in line with services Coloradans already use like Bustang and the Winter Park Express (currently modeled at $0.19 per mile).”
  • According to Amtrak’s 2023 Sustainability Report, U.S. intercity passenger rail produces up to 83% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than driving, and up to 72% fewer than flying. (Of course there are different views on this issue, actual rail ridership matters, and there are lots of electric cars.) FRPRD says it will continue looking into more energy-efficient vehicles over time as technology and infrastructure permit.

Proponents:

  • Coloradans for CoCo has reported $700,290.00 in total contributions as of Oct. 6. Top donors include Sterling Ranch LLC for $125,000, Conscience Bay Research LLC for $101,672.42, Denver Broncos Football Club for $100,000, HDR Inc. (Omaha) for $100,000, Eric Laufer of NYC for $100,000, Colorado Rockies Baseball Team for $50,000, Lion Residential LLC for $50,000, and HNTB Corporation for $50,000.

Opponents: 

  • Affordable Colorado has reported $9,858.60 in non-monetary contributions as of Oct. 6.
  • Let’s Go Colorado has not reported any donations yet.

 

Links to More Information:

Richard’s Take

Despite being a very big transit fan, I’ll stay neutral on this particular ballot measure because I feel there are strong positives and a few negatives I can’t just ignore.

For perhaps the biggest positive, expanding Front Range Rail from Denver to Pueblo and expanding trip frequency would eventually make the system more useful for more people. I sort of hate having written that as one sentence, because it’s a big reason to consider supporting 7A. After 22 years of waiting for FasTracks, I anxiously await even limited service from Ft. Collins to Denver with the Colorado Connector.

I have a few main points about transit that I don’t believe get enough play. Yes, rail will cost money and not everyone will use it, but there’s also a cost to interstate highway maintenance, and lane expansion is expensive. A planned express lane project on I-25 from Mead to Berthoud was estimated to cost $415 million – and Mead to Berthoud is only about 10 miles. According to a 2023 U.S. Department of Transportation press release, an I-25 roadway project including 52 miles of express lanes between Ft. Collins and Denver was estimated to cost $1.6 billion, and the release anticipated “$4.6 billion of investments to be implemented through 2060.” That’s just one stretch of I-25 that I almost never use, and I live in the north metro.

Yes, people might be able to drive faster to some destinations compared to riding the train, but transit riders don’t have to watch the road; they can do work or read or watch video instead of steering; they don’t have to find or pay for parking; and they don’t buy fuel or put wear and tear on their cars. And with passenger rail, compared to buses, there are restrooms and could be café service so riders don’t need to pull over while traveling. Not everyone will make those trade-offs, but they’ve worked for me.

Yes, passenger rail like the Connector will only go to limited numbers of stations, and people will have to find a way to get from the station to their precise destination. I don’t really want to lecture here, but this should not always be an insurmountable obstacle. Those who will figure out local transit in advance, or can call something like an Uber or Lyft or taxi, or can rent or bring a bike, will be able to get from the station to the location. I won’t deny there will be situations where it might be better to drive. That’s what your $4.6 billion long-term investment in north I-25 is for, plus all the maintenance that will be needed over time.

Speaking only for myself, I would probably use the train to go from Boulder to Denver if I had a good reason to go. I used to do this trip five times a week or more, and a train would have been a great option. But I doubt I’d use it a lot to the other destinations that would get added under 7A. I’ve gone to Pueblo to do stuff twice since 2013. Maybe 7A would help me consider going to the State Fair, but even then, probably not that often. I like Ft. Collins but really haven’t had a reason to go almost as long as I can remember.

On the other hand, I’ve been on I-25 south of Denver on days where it’s about as congested as I-70 during peak ski season weekends. While most people would rarely ride the whole rail line from Ft. Collins to Pueblo, a shorter train trip from, say, Colorado Springs to Pueblo, or Denver to Colorado Springs, ought to be a whole lot nicer than being stuck at crawling speed on the interstate, and I’m actually not being all that snarky by saying “crawling speed.”

But I do see some negatives. This might be slightly too local for a regional ballot measure, but my ballot here in Boulder was already ginormous in late August when FRPRD officially put 7A on the ballot. I realize that most communities are not doing City Council and Mayoral elections along with the state, district, and local ballot measures; on top of state, federal and district candidate races on one ballot – and I warned y’all about that back in 2022. But 7A to me felt a bit like that one straw on my back, ballot volume-wise, and not just as a writer but also as a voter and as a citizen.

I’ve learned a couple other challenging points since starting to research. Projected ridership does seem modest, and a majority is expected to be from between Denver and Ft. Collins. And according to this post from “The Denver Group,” the phase of the rail project that would expand frequency to up to 10 round trips per day does not have identified funding yet.

To me, 7A is the type of issue that should have a pretty extended and focused I-25 community conversation, with a long period of outreach, input, and education. I actually went to a Joint Service meeting for the Ft. Collins to Denver proposal, and left feeling pretty comfortable that it had funding and will happen. It’s not so much that I lack confidence in the full 7A-and-later expansion, but I don’t feel like the whole area and many non-transportation-geek voters have had the time or capacity to really learn enough about it.

It’s also a 2026 local ballot that already entailed a fair amount of expense. I was already weighing my options between competing property tax increases for City of Boulder facilities and Boulder County childcare expenses before 7A dropped, and might sacrifice TABOR refunds for the rest of my life with Prop NN. I can personally vote against any one or all of these measures, but I can’t control what voters do and it’s not impossible that all three might pass. Add in a pretty big sales tax with 7A, and I’m going to be doing some picking and choosing among measures that I might have fairly easily supported, if only they came one at a time.

So, I’m not really writing to tell people what to do. This is a voluminous issue, and voters who still have time might wish to at least read more on the links I’ve supplied or other sources.